New Anita Sarkeesian Video Looks At Gaming’s ‘Ms. Male’ Trope

Feminist Frequency continues its ‘Tropes vs Women in Games‘ series, this time spending some time analyzing female characters who are kind of copy and paste versions of the male lead—only with added stereotypical stuff like the color pink, bows, interest in shopping, amongst other things. Think, for example, of Ms. Pac Man. Or heck, if…

Royal Family PS4 Watch: Prince William Still Does Not Have A PS4

We can confirm that as of today, November 18, 2013, the Duke of Cambridge Prince William Arthur Philip Louis does not have a PlayStation 4. Prince William would like a PlayStation 4, but he does not yet have one, for even the Earl of Strathearn is subject to the iron rule of a small human…

Your New Achievements Are Much Prettier On Xbox One

The little achievement pop-upisn’t the only thing that’s changed on the Xbox One. Actually viewing Xbox One achievements themselves will be better, too. The first image in this post, which comes from Microsoft’s Mike Ybarra, may look like a wallpaper, but it’s actually what a specific achievement in Ryse looks like. It’s the screen you’d…

eSports Is Getting Its Own Network—MLG.tv [Corrected]

Video gaming’s not a sport? Don’t tell that to MLG.TV—an Internet-broadcast network that’ll showcase the league’s major events and, yes, broadcast a studio show with highlights and news, akin to the coverage that, yes, real sports get. MLG announced the new programming venture today in this story at TechCrunch. The broadcast will stream up 1080p…

Xbox One Games, Cheap Playstation Plus, Boardwalk Empire [Deals]

Head over to the Microsoft Store and get $10 credit back on select pre-orders, reducing this great selection of games to $50/piece, or buy 6 get 1 free. You also have the option of walking into a physical Toys R Us and getting a $50 gift card with 3 Xbox One games purchased, which works…

The Big Valve Conference You Probably Can’t Attend

On January 15 and 16, Valve is holding a special event. I’m not invited. You’re probably not, either. It’s called “Steam Developer Days,” and it’s a two-day conference designed to showcase Valve’s upcoming living-room-centric PCs, the Steam Machines. During the conference, which will feature guest speakers from companies like AMD, Oculus, and Nvidia, attendees will…

It Took More Than 12,000 Paintings To Make Blade Runner This Beautiful

Swedish artist Anders Ramsell created 12,597 watercolor paintings to craft a 35 minute long “paraphrasing” of Ridley Scott’s 1982 cult-classic science fiction film Blade Runner. It’s like watching the movie in a dream. First featured on Kotaku last year in the form of a 12 minute teaser, Ramsell’s Blade Runner – The Aquarelle Edition captures…

Team Fortress 2 With Little Dolls Is Just Too Cute To Handle

Made by a group of Source Filmmaker animators for Valve’s annual machinima competition, “Lil Guardian Pyro” tells the heartbreaking story of a miniature Pyro and other Team Fortress characters, in a way that you might think it’s one of Valve’s own animations. Here’s the full clip. Get ready for 4 minutes of cuteness overload: Lil…

It’s a nice day for a white Ouya. Just in time for Christmas, the tiny Android console gets its first limited edition recolor. At$129.99it’s $30 more than the standard edition, but it’s also $30 prettier and comes with 16GB storage instead of 8GB, so it all works out.

Here’s what’s going on Talk Among Yourselves, our reader-written blog: Stormborn’s Super Mario Brothers redesign project continues in fine fahion, with a Princess Daisy that nobody would want to mess with. And Pink Zapper Helmet implores everyone to stop invoking Roger Ebert’s name when it comes to video game, criticism and discussions of artistic merit.…

SOE Boss ‘Can’t Wait To See’ EverQuest Next On The PS4

With two of Sony Online Entertainment’s massively multiplayer online games already PlayStation 4 bound, it makes sense that the company’s ambitious EverQuest reboot would get similar treatment. Speaking with GamerHubTV, SOE president John Smedley says he can’t wait to see it happen. This generation of consoles is looking to be the most MMO-heavy yet. The…

Crimson Dragon: The Kotaku Review

Dragons—oh, I’ve killed dragons. Lots of dragons. I’ve collected dragon scales, I’ve made weapons out of dragon bones. I’ve even been able to speak the language of dragons. You’d think I’ve done it all, but no: before playing Crimson Dragon, I had never ridden a dragon before. This also means I’ve never played Panzer Dragoon—and…

Enemy Within, the expansion set to XCOM: Enemy Unknown added new character customization: Hair styles, color combinations—and a 1950s fedora. The result above (you can call him Fedora Mech) is the strangest—or coolest—looking soldier XCOM has ever seen. Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs every morning, showcasing some of the prettiest,funniest game-related screenshots and…

Blizzard’s Hearthstone Might Have Competition in China

Blizzard Entertainment’s upcoming digital trading card game, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, is eagerly awaited by fans all around the world. In China, the game is currently in a semi-open beta. Things aren’t all sunshine and rainbows for Blizzard, however, as there are issues abound and competitors to squash. Late last week, Hearthstone’s Chinese card store…

These Are China’s Biggest Online Games

China’s online game market is breaking sales records year-on-year in the world’s most populous nation. In 2013, this market alone is poised to make over $11 billion, according to Gameindustry.biz. But which are country’s favorite online games? Let’s take a look. Left without a console market due to the exorbitant prices of consoles (and a…